The Near-Death Experience in Children:
Shades of the Prison-House Reopening
Nancy Evans Bush
International Association for Near-Death Studies
Storrs, Connecticut
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
from God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing boy.
(William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations
of Immortality, 11. 64-68)
ABSTRACT
Some critics have argued that the near-death experience (NDE) is merely a
culturally conditioned response to a life crisis, a reflection of expectations
engendered by education, religious training, social mores, and family traditions.
A review of seventeen accounts of NDEs in children, including two youngsters
still in childhood, indicates that NDEs that occur at early ages appear to be
substantially similar in content to adult experiences. These accounts suggest that
cultural conditioning is not a primary determinant of NDE contents.
INTRODUCTION
Although the occurrence of near-death experiences (NDEs) in
adults is now widely accepted as a legitimate phenomenon, evidence
of such experiences happening to children has been sparse. Accounts
of childhood NDEs in the archives of the International Association
for Near-Death Studies (LANDS) are primarily retrospective, written
as many as sixty-five years after the event. Though these accounts
are often vivid, they are necessarily filtered through an adult con
sciousness. Melvin Morse (1983) has recently described an NDE
occurring in a seven-year-old child, and Glen Gabbard and Stuart
Twemlow (in press) have discussed details and implications of NDEs
in three children between the ages of five and seven. A study of
Anabiosis - The Journalfor Near-Death
Studies, December 1983, Vol. 3, No. 2
17 8
Anabiosis-The Journal for Near-Death Studies
contemporary childhood experiences is currently underway at the
University of Connecticut School of Nursing, which may ultimately
provide fuller information about this aspect of near-death research.
Recently LANDS received letters from two mothers of children
who had had NDEs during near-drownings.. We present in this paper
details from our contacts with these two mothers, and elements of
fifteen retrospective accounts of childhood NDEs from the LANDS
archives. In the absence of more abundant data from a larger sample,
this article offers no interpretation of these experiences. Premature
speculation as to their psychodynamic or developmental import for
child experiencers might serve only to muddy waters now being
explored for the first time. For now, the experiences described here
will serve as introduction.
At least in the United States, from which these experiences came,
adulthood may be characterized as the time when a person may
legally be employed, marry, and drive. In most states, these activities
become legal at age sixteen, making this age a convenient measure
for defining the onset of adulthood. Experiences occurring above
the age of fifteen have been excluded from this survey.
RETROSPECTIVE ACCOUNTS
Of the available retrospective accounts, fifteen are sufficiently
detailed to provide a clear picture of the experiences. Fourteen of
these have been remembered clearly since the event - a period ranging
from 11 to 65 years. The other, occurring at the age of 13 months,
was recalled 27 years later under hypnosis.
Causal events were, in most cases, relatively common childhood
disasters, at least at the time of occurrence: there are four near
drownings; three ruptured appendices; two unidentified illnesses
with prolonged high fever; and one case each resulting from
mastoiditis, pneumonia/mastoiditis, drug allergy, and a fall. Of two
incidents not typically childhood-associated, one resulted from a
"heart attack" (no other information given) and one when a boy was
swept into a flood-swollen river (not a near-drowning). There is no
correlation between age and precipitating event.
These retrospective experiences are here categorized by their
predominant NDE features, ordered by frequency of mention rather
than by sequence within the experience(s).
NDEs in children
179
The Light
The adults interviewed for Kenneth Ring's Life at Death (1980)
were asked, "Did you at any time experience a light, glow, or illumi
nation?" Thirty-four percent answered affirmatively. In Michael
Sabom's study (1982), light appeared as a prominent feature in
28 percent of the responses. In the current survey's unsolicited
retrospective accounts, with no question asked that might prompt
a mention, light is the single most-noted feature of the NDEs, ap
pearing in 65 percent of the experiences.
A nine-year-old girl had a near-death experience four hours after
surgery for a ruptured appendix, her surgeon having already told
her parents that she would probably not live through the night.
As she described her NDE,
[Then] the blackness was gone and in its place was a beautiful soft pink
light. All the weight was gone, and I floated back up into the room as
light as a feather. I seemed to be filled with this same light, which was the
most profound spirit of love that you can imagine. Nothing has ever come
near it since. I opened my eyes, and the whole room was just bathed in
that beautiful light. In fact, the light completely surrounded everything
in the room, there were no shadows. I felt so happy .... I heard my father
say, 'What's she looking at?' The light lasted for a little while and it was
wonderful.
Another nine-year-old girl, diving off the high board at summer
camp, slipped and plunged uncontrolled into the ocean. Underwater
for ten minutes, she later reported:
The next thing I remember is floating only an inch or two from the ocean's
sandy bottom in the midst of a great light. The light wasn't the bright
glaring sort of light that makes you blink. Instead, this light was in
candescent, almost ethereal. I could see every indentation and curvature
in the sand and minute details in the seaweed. If there were fish or shells,
I don't remember them. I felt absolutely nothing. Not the water, nor the
sand, nothing. I was surrounded by silence, but I wasn't afraid. I wanted
to stay there forever. I have never since experienced such a feeling of peace.
A four-year-old girl descended the cellar stairs with a flashlight
because the bulb at the landing had burned out. Years later, she
reported:
As I started to take the first step down, I flashed the beam of light up
at the light bulb, curious to see if a burned-out bulb looked "burned."
I stepped out and fell into the darkness.
The next thing I was aware of, was being up near the ceiling over the
foot of the stairs. The light was dim and at first I saw nothing unusual.
Then I saw myself lying, face down, on the cement, over to the side of
the stairway. I was a little surprised, but not at all upset at seeing myself
Anabiosis-The Journalfor Near-Death Studies
180
that way. I watched and saw that I didn't move at all. After a while,
I said to myself, "I guess I'm dead." But I felt good! Better than Iever had.
I realized I probably wouldn't be going back to my mother, but I wasn't
afraid at all ...
I noticed the dim light growing slowly brighter. The source of light
was not in the basement, but far behind and slightly above me. I looked
over my shoulder into the most beautiful light imaginable. It seemed to
be at the end of a long tunnel which was gradually getting brighter and
brighter as more and more of the light entered it. It was yellow-white and
brilliant, but not painful to look at even directly. As I turned to face the
light with my full "body," I felt happier than I ever had before or have since.
Then the light was gone. I felt groggy and sick, with a terrible headache.
I only wanted my mother, and to stop my head from hurting.
A fourteen-year-old boy and his family, trying to escape from their
car trapped on a bridge by rising flood waters, were swept over the
side and downstream. He later wrote to IANDS:
I knew I was either dead or going to die. But then something happened.
It was so immense, so powerful, that I gave up on my life to see what it
was. I wanted to venture into this experience which started as a drifting
into what I could only describe as a long, rectangular tunnel of light.
But it wasn't just light, it was a protective passage of energy with an
intense brightness at the end which I wanted to look into, to touch.
. . . As I reached the source of the light, I could see in. I cannot begin
to describe in human terms the feelings I had over what I saw. It was a
giant infinite world of calm, and love, and energy, and beauty. It was as
though human life was unimportant compared to this. And yet it urged
the importance of life at the same time it solicited death as a means to a
different and better life. It was all being, all beauty, all meaning for all
existence. It was all the energy of the Universe forever in one place.
As I reached my right hand into it, feelings of exhilirating anticipation
overwhelmed me. I did not need my body any more. I wanted to leave
it behind, if I hadn't already, and go to my God in this new world.
A Sense of Well-Being
Of Ring's (1980) adult sample, 20 percent identified having ex
perienced a sense of well-being ("happy," "good," "beautiful"),
with 60 percent remarking on the feeling of peace. Among the
retrospective childhood accounts, the percentages are almost exactly
reversed - 53 percent reporting the sense of well-being and 35
percent feelings of peace. For the two groups, then, 80 percent
of the adult experiences and 88 percent of the childhood NDEs
included well-being/peace.
As a developmental issue, it will be interesting to see whether
larger samples of children reporting recent NDEs follow the pattern
of mentioning having felt "happy" and "good" rather than "peace."
NDEs in children
181
A thirteen-month-old girl, hospitalized with pneumonia in both
lungs and mastoiditis in both ears, was too sick to tolerate surgery.
Considered near death, she later relived the experience under hypnosis:
I am strapped down - hands, legs, body. I feel excruciating pain. There
[are] big people all around [with] enormous hands
. All at once I am
safe. I am being rocked to sleep in a soft, warm and utterly serene and
secure cradle. There is no pain, no noise, no turmoil - only peace, beauti
ful peace. The overhead light in the room is gone; in its place is all-en
compassing light, the light which communicates safety and love. I feel so
warm and confident inside. There is no pain. I can breathe easily; my limbs
are free to move and I am all safe. . . . My eyes fix on the window across
the room; it is outlined with the warm and happy light. My mother is
looking through the window at me.
..
A thirteen-year-old boy who nearly drowned later reported:
It was a feeling of no pain at all. Like a floating feeling. It was like a
beautiful rest period. If I was near death, it was beautiful.
A fourteen-year-old girl with an abscessed tooth had an allergic
reaction to sodium pentathol that she was given. Years later, she
wrote:
I was traveling towards [the light] rather quickly. I was very warm and
cozy and knew something wonderful was at the end of the tunnel and
in the light.
A fourteen-year-old girl with a ruptured appendix later reported:
I did not hurt any more. I was surrounded by a puffy cloud. I really was
floating in peace. I have never felt as good. My parents asked me if I needed
to go to the hospital. I told them no, because I didn't hurt any more and
I was dying.
Out-of-Body Experiences
Ring's (1980) adult sample included 37 percent reporting out
of-body experiences, with roughly 33 percent identified as "visually
clear." Among the retrospectively reported NDEs surveyed here,
a total of 47 percent reported feeling separated from the physical
body, 41 percent of them visually clear experiences.
An eight-year-old boy whose ears had just been lanced for
mastoiditis later reported:
Mother was covering me when I felt I was rising up in the air. Although
I could see I was rising toward a bright light, I could-also look down
and see Mother kneeling beside me.
.
..
A twelve-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital with a ruptured
appendix. She later wrote IANDS:
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182
I became aware that not only was I completely out of pain, but that I
seemed to be somehow floating along, above the ambulance. I could see
my still, white form lying on the stretcher, my mother with tears in her
eyes, leaning over my body, my father in the car behind the ambulance,
white knuckles grasping the steering wheel. In addition, I could see my
grandmother pacing up and down our living room, about fifteen miles
in one direction, and my [physician] uncle at the hospital, fifteen miles
in the other direction. At the time, nothing seemed odd about being able
to be with all of those people at the same time. I remember feeling very
detached from them, much as I feel if I walk down a strange street and
casually glance into someone's back yard.
six-year-old boy with polio fell face-down in foot-deep water in
which he was wading without his leg brace. Years later, he wrote:
A
Suddenly I was viewing the scene from a vantage point about two or three
feet above, behind, and to the right of my mother's right shoulder. She
was sitting on the beach in a folding chair. My next older brother was
playing in the sand to her right, and I could see myself floundering in the
water between and beyond them. Just as I got there, my mother put
down the newspaper she was holding open in front of her and reading,
saw me in the water trying to call for help, and then turned to my brother
and calmly told him, "Go pull your brother out of the water." I remember
the words distinctly. I saw my brother stand up, walk out into the water
where I was, and reach down and grab me by the shoulder. The next thing
I knew, I was back in the water with my brother pulling me up.
The Tunnel, Darkness
Once again, the childhood retrospective accounts show a higher
percentage of mentions of entering darkness or "the tunnel" than
adult accounts. The adults surveyed by Ring (1980) reported a 23
percent incidence of "entering the darkness" (41 percent in the
retrospective accounts), with an 18 percent incidence of the tunnel
(30 percent in the retrospective accounts).
A ten-year-old boy, sick for several weeks with an unidentified
illness, had an NDE shortly after "the doctors had given up":
I don't remember the entrance, but in a little while I was in a dark
tunnel. There was absolutely no sound, and all was black. I couldn't see
to make my way through the tunnel, but I was being wafted along as a
speck of dust, pitch black, but as I went along with neither sight nor sound,
I felt at ease. I thought I was discovering a new cave.
After a while the tunnel became square in section, and along I went and
I became annoyed, and thought to myself that the journey was pointless
and fruitless and I was wasting valuable time. Just when I was about to
turn back in disgust (I was completely alone), I saw a tiny speck of light
ahead. I went on, and as I did the speck grew larger, and I thought it was
well I hadn't turned back because I was going to discover something at
. . .
last.
NDEs in children
183
At about 150 yards from the end, I saw plainly that there was brilliant
white light out there beyond the square end of the tunnel. It interested
me and I went on. All was yet quiet, and I went blissfully on, enjoying
the journey at last.
When I was about twenty-five yards from the end, the light became the
most brilliant I have ever seen, yet it did not hurt my eyes. I began to
wonder about that light because all I could see was light: no landscape,
no people, nothing but a sea of light. And not a single ray entered the
tunnel. The tunnel was black right to the end, and then there was the sea
of light.
I went closer, cautious now because it seemed that the end of the tunnel
was pretty high up on the side of a cliff, and since I couldn't see through
the light, I didn't know how far the drop might be, if I left the tunnel.
When I was near the end, I took a good look around at the sea of light.
I was urged to jump into it, and assured that I would not fall to ground.
No voice said this, it
came to me from a kind of presence. I thought
it might be fun to try; but in an instant I knew that if I left the end of
the tunnel I'd never find it again, and hence never get back home.
I turned around and started back through the tunnel, and that is the
last I remember.
[The final paragraph of this account reads, "Believe me, if you go through
what I have described, you come back with the thought that it's a good
thing you didn't dive into that whipped cream of lovely light too soon.
But you know you have 'seen the light."']
just
A post-operative
nine-year-old girl, the first case described above,
reported:
Then a strange uneasiness came over me, and as I watched, the darkness
from the hall gradually came into the room and filled it. It seemed to have
a weight to it, and as the room got darker, it became harder for me to
breathe, like there was a weight on my chest. It felt as if this darkness was
pushing me down, and as I looked up at the ceiling I noticed that it was
getting smaller and smaller. It was like being pushed slowly down a mine
shaft.
A fourteen-year-old girl with an allergic reaction to sodium
pentothal, described above in the section on "Well-Being," also
reported:
All I knew was I was traveling - not walking or running, just somehow
moving smoothly - down a long black tunnel with bright green and red
lights on either side. At the end of the tunnel was a yellow or golden
light. I was traveling towards it rather quickly. . . . It seems I got about
half-way to the light when I started to reverse and it got colder. The next
thing I knew ... the dentist said, "You gave us quite a scare."
The fourteen-year-old
above, stated:
boy swept over the bridge, also described
This experience . . . started as a drifting into what I could only describe
as a long rectangular tunnel of light. But it wasn't just light, it was a pro-
Anabiosis-The Journalfor Near-Death Studies
184
tective passage of energy with an intense brightness at the end which I
wanted to look into, to touch.
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS
The near-death experiences recounted here occurred between the
ages of 13 months and 14 years; they were written down by the now
adult experiencers anywhere from 11 to 65 years later. Median age of
the adults at the time of writing was 48, with a range of 25 to 72 years.
Specific analysis of the differences between retrospective accounts
and those of children remembering recent experiences will obviously
provide useful information; however, that study must wait for the
accumulation of an adequate population of recent child experiencers.
The two accounts that follow are more recent, as the experiencers
are still children. Both are direct transcriptions of the child's experi
ence as told to the mother. Although it would be highly desirable to
have a tape of the child describing the NDE himself, this lack may be
counter-balanced by the fact that in relating the account to his
mother, the child was in a natural setting in which he was, quite
literally, "at home," and without the need to adjust to an unfamiliar
interviewer.
Robin
Because of its remarkable force and openness, Robin's mother's
letter is reprinted here almost in entirety.
On December 18, 1971, I had my son. My husband Jose and I were
overjoyed. A beautiful perfect strong son. He would kick so hard in the
bathtub I would be frightened of his strength. A beautiful boy. So good.
He never cried much. He smiled so early. Never sick. So strong.
The morning of August 9, 1975, my husband was very nervous all
morning. He was to meet my sister, husband, and two children for the
first time. He agreed on that, but all the way up to our family home, Jose
would say, "I don't want to go to [Crystal] Lake." [But] we all went....
We got on a boat to go out to our own private area. . . . Robin cried
all the way on the boat across the lake. I remember the heat was very
intense. Dry, too. When we arrived, I can remember pulling him with all
my strength off the boat. Jose came over to me and said, "I hate it here."
I had Robin in my hand and he was still angry. I let go of his hand and
told him, "Robin, Mommy is going to get you an inner tube," but he said,
"No." I turned around and he was gone.
I looked around and everyone was swimming or sunbathing. My sister
Beth had already put her blanket down and was laying down sunbathing.
She had two boys with us, one Robin's age. The men were already swim
ming. I let out a scream of death. "Beth, I can't find Robin!"
NDEs in children
185
Within seconds, everyone on the beach was looking. Ten minutes went
by. No Robin. I ran up on a hill. Jose followed. The rocks on the hill felt
like razors on my feet but I didn't care. I hoped Robin went up the hill.
Jose embraced me. I felt totally helpless as I screamed in his arms and he
cried in mine. I just knew he was dead.
As we looked down the hill, a lifeguard boat drove up. Everyone
screaming to have him help. Jose left me and went back down to look.
Three lifeguards. About fifteen men by this time.
As I started down the hill, Robin came up feet first by the lifeguards.
Fifteen minutes in ten feet of water by the dock. No one knew the dock
was deep because the lake about two feet away was shallow. A new lake
and no signs. By this time, sheriffs were holding me away from Robin.
Jose was holding me, too. I remember feeling worthless because I couldn't
get to my own son. I prayed. My sister left a second and came running
back. "He is alive, they have a heartbeat."
I said, "No, she is saying that so I won't go crazy." When I saw a
helicopter, I then felt maybe, because they wanted to take him to the
hospital nearby.
[At the hospital] we met a lady doctor. She told us, "He's alive, but
very, very sick." She stayed with Robin for many hours. Robin was in
a deep coma. Machines and a plastic box over his head. I couldn't touch
him. My baby, three years and eight months. Our tears were endless.
The doctor transferred him to [the] Medical Center and stayed with
him all night until he was stabilized.I drove out [there] three times a day
because my work wouldn't let me off. We tore our car apart, but I didn't
care.
Two weeks. No change. One day I went in his room. His bed was
stripped. No sheets, no Robin. I dug my fingers into Jose. A housekeeper
came in his room and said, "He's down the hall." We walked down the
hall, always numb. I thought he was dead. As we slowly walked into the
room, Robin was laughing at a clown passing out balloons.
The next day he was in a wheelchair. We took him down to the cafe
teria for lunch. He ate like a horse. Talking to us. Walking with us slowly
for a few days.
In three weeks he was back to the day-care center.
No brain damage. Just ear damage that has been corrected.
Robin is eleven now, and about six months ago he shared something
with me about the white light. I couldn't understand until I listened
carefully.
. He said, "A long time ago I was awake. Not asleep! I was going
up in the air and saw you and Papa crying. Something came to me and
said you have to go back. I felt good [to come back], but I liked all
the people I saw."
I asked Robin who he saw, and he said they were too bright, but,
"One man held me and I felt so good I wanted to stay, but he said no."
Just a few days ago, I reminded Robin of what he told me and he didn't
remember and laughed at me. Maybe someday he will remember again.
I do know God gave me back my son, but I know he isnot mine forever.
He is a gift I must take good care of until he is ready to share his life with
others.
Anabiosis-The Journalfor Near-Death Studies
186
Jer
Jer was four when he fell into the deep end of the apartment house
swimming pool. A year later, his mother heard of IANDS and wrote,
saying, "I need help in trying to explain certain things which I know
nothing about. Don't think this is a crack-pot letter. I'm really
confused about this."
What follows is a verbatim account (rearranged for chronological
sequence)
of a lengthy telephone conversation with Jer's mother.
The day it happened, Jer had gone outside to play. Maybe ten minutes.
I had checked on him maybe ten minutes before. The other boys came
running and told me Jer was in the water.
My girl friend pulled him out of the pool. I knew he was dead. I could
see it on his face. His lips were pale blue. I knew he was dead. I started
mouth-to-mouth, and then my other girl friend took over. He was in the
water four or five minutes, in the deep end. The paramedics got there
real quick.
The day of the accident, two doctors had come from [the Medical
Center] to do a conference on the new controlled coma procedures for
drownings. They were still at our little hospital and they drove back to
[the Medical Center] with Jer. They started him on the drugs right away.
They put him into a controlled coma for seven days, with his temper
ature way down. The first brain scan they did was unreadable. They said
there was just nothing there.
I knew if I was there with him in the hospital he'd be okay. I knew
it, in spite of what the doctors said. They said there would be severe
brain damage, and we'd better be preparing ourselves for it.
We drove to [the Medical Center] every morning, a 1 hour trip each
way. I'd go in and say, "Hi, Jer, Mom's here," and I'd kiss him. And his
heart rate would go up. Some of the doctors said we didn't have to be
there, that it was too much for us every day, but I knew we had to be
there. I know he knew somehow that we were there. They told us to keep
talking to him. His heart rate went up, and other things.
Two or three days later, they did another brain scan. The nurse said
it was better, but the doctors still said there was major brain damage.
They said he might die when they started to warm him up. They started
warming him up bn Thursday. They said it might take until Sunday,
because they were doing it real slow, but he started coming around almost
immediately. They didn't know what to do, he was coming around so fast.
They said he wouldn't remember anything about the experience, if he
could remember anything at all. They really expected him to be so damaged.
But when he woke up, the first thing he said was, "Get me a doctor
I'm drowning."
I should tell you, Jer has always been terrified of water. He was just
terrified. After we got him home from the hospital, we had a little party
for him. Kind of a welcome back. I mean, we were just so glad that he
was - well, that he was back at all. And the first thing he did, he said he
wanted to go in the pool. I nearly died. I never wanted to go near the thing
NDEs in children
187
again. But I put his floaters on him and he went over and dove right in the
deep part. When he came up, he said to his brother, "See, Jon, I came back
again."
He walked around with this for almost a year, and then one day he
came to me and said, "Sit down. I have to talk to you, Mother." That's
not a five-year-old. He never calls me "Mother."
He said, "When I drowned, I didn't want to come back. I saw something
real pretty in the sky. I saw you and Josie and another lady working on me.
I was sitting on the roof and I could see you.
"Then it got real dark and I walked down a tunnel. There was a bright
light at the end, and a man was standing there."
I asked him, "Who was the man?"
He said, "It was God. And I said I wanted to stay. But God said it
wasn't my time yet and I had to come back. I put my hand out and God
put his hand out and then God pulled his hand back. He didn't want me
to stay.
"On the way back, I saw the devil. He said if I did what he wanted, I
could have anything I want."
I said, "You know God is good and the devil is evil."
He said, "The devil said I could have anything I wanted, but I didn't
want him bossing me around."
I said, "Mom and Dad wanted you back real bad, and God knew that.
He let you come back to us." And he said, "When I fell in the water, I
called and called for you, but you didn't hear me."
Since his experience, Jer's mother reports, he has become moody,
with dreams - good and bad - that affect his behavior the following
day. She says he gets "a faraway look" and says his dreams are some
times about "castles in the sky."
The beginning of school led to severe behavioral disruptions that
have led Jer's parents to take him for counseling. Believing the near
drowning experience to be related to the behavior changes, Jer's
mother told the psychologist about it; however, the response was,
"You know children and their imaginations." The therapist will
not discuss it.
Our interview concluded with the following:
When he gets moody, I'll ask him why.
"I think I'll keep that my business for a while," he says. It's like a
grown-up person in a little body. He seems to have no sense of fear, and
that scares me. Pain doesn't seem to bug him, either. It just doesn't bother
him.
He gets this faraway look and if I ask he says it's so nice there. Is he
going to try to do something to get back there? I think there's something
there, too, that he doesn't want to talk to Mom about. Something is
bothering him that he can't tell me. What do I do? I mean, I'm saying,
"Come on back, Jer," and God's up there, and I'm saying - what do I
do now?
188
Anabiosis-The Journalfor Near-Death Studies
FEATURES OF CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
Adherents to the "tabula rasa" view of childhood development
may find these accounts disquieting. There is no indication here that
children's experiences are simpler, less detailed, or different in
structure from those occurring in adults as described by Raymond
Moody (1975), Ring (1980), Sabom (1982), and George Gallup
(1982). What may be most remarkable about them is that, when
compared with the content of adult experiences, they are so un
remarkable.
Quantitatively, differences in the rates of occurrence of specific
features are obvious, using Ring's (1980) data for comparison.
However, as Ring's respondents participated in a structured interview
and the childhood experiencers did not, the comparability of the
percentages may not be reliable. With this qualification, the per
centages are given in the Table on page 189.
Child/Adult Experience Comparisons
The incidence of certain features in these childhood NDEs varies
from those of adult experiences.
Life review and judgment. Both Moody (1975) and Ring (1980)
found a strong relationship between the life review and the idea of
judgment. It is all the more interesting, then, that none of the child
hood accounts includes a life review, for nowhere in any of these
experiences is the word "judgment" mentioned, nor "judge," nor the
idea that one's life might be evaluated as "good" or "bad." The
concept is totally absent, even among the older children who might
have been expected to identify more closely with adult thought
patterns, and in the three who believed themselves either dead or
dying.
Four of the children encountered a figure or presence, variously
identified as "God," "a big man," or "like a giant." Although the
ages of the four are three years and eight months, four, nine, and
fourteen years - obviously representing widely differing develop
mental stages - the concept of judgment or of "goodness/badness"
is absent from them all. Fear is not mentioned as an element in the
encounters, nor are awe, joy, bliss, nor any of the other characteristics
described by adults. One could call this group of children matter
of-fact in encountering the presence.
Encounters with deceased persons. It is probably not surprising
that only two of these childhood accounts report meetings with
NDEs in children
189
PERCENTAGES
OF
NEAR-DEAT
H
EXPERIENCERS
REPORTING NDE FEATURES
Feature
Incidence
Childhood N=17
(Unsolicited
mentions)
Light
Sense of well-being
Adult N=49
(Solicited
mentions)
65%
53%
34%
47%
41%
41%
30%
35%
35%
35%
37%
20%
(happy, good, beautiful)
Separation from body
Autoscopic OBE
Entering the darkness
Tunnel
Peace
Absence of fear
Encounter with spiritual
presences, voices
No pain
Floating
Silence
Wisdom, "knowingness"
Ineffability
Negative elements
Landscape
Encounter with deceased people
Sense of dying
Sense of a boundary
Believed self dead
Life review
Chose to return
Told to return
"Just came back"
No information about return
23%
18%
60%
47%
40%
24%
24%
24%
24%
18%
18%
18%
49%
12%
12%
16%
39%
27%
25%
25%
34%
23%
6%
6%
0%
12%
24%
30%
35%
16%
49%
20%
57%
190
Anabiosis-The Journal for Near-Death Studies
deceased persons. One, a twelve-year-old, said he met "a teacher and
a schoolmate"; the other, an eight-year-old boy, reported entering
a garden and meeting a girl somewhat older than he who identified
herself as his sister. Asking his parents about her later, he discovered
that an older sister had died at birth.
Knowing; the feeling of wisdom. Although adults have reported
a powerful sense of knowledge, of being suffused with information
that sometimes - and startlingly - surfaces after resuscitation, the
children's experiences tend to be presented in specifically age-related
terms. "The overwhelming feeling was one of wisdom or a great
'knowingness,"' wrote a woman of her experience. "That is a strange
feeling for a twelve-year-old who one moment has the sense that all
grownups know so much and then the next moment feels so wise.
I recall sort of pausing to savor that feeling."
Another wrote, "I felt wonderful and calm and strong. I wasn't
nine years old, I was eternal."
And about an experience at the age of four, a woman noted,
"I felt strong and confident, with a strong sense that everything was
all right. I didn't feel like a little child or any age at all."
Absence of fear. Although mentioned more frequently by adults
(47 percent as compared to 35 percent in children), absence of fear
appears as a strong element in the six accounts in which it is explicit.
In all cases, the lack of fear is especially noted for its contrast to the
child's usual feelings; its absence is marked, specific, and clearly
remembered. In their accustomed selves, said the writers, they were
timid, afraid of heights, fearful of separation from their parents,
frightened in strange situations, or aware of being powerlessly
small; yet during the NDE, these terrors vanished.
By contrast, adult comments about being unafraid are stylistically
more casual, on the order of an offhand remark. Reading a group of
the childhood experiences, by contrast, evokes powerful reminiscences
of the nameless terrors that accompany being very young.
Worth mentioning for its fearless tone is the account of the ten
year-old boy exploring the "pitch black" square tunnel. "I thought
I was discovering a new cave," said the writer, and then, ". .. I was
wasting valuable time. Just when I was about to turn back in disgust
. . I saw a tiny speck of light ahead. . . . I thought it was well I
hadn't turned back because I was going to discover something at
last." Despite a lapse of forty-five years, the account carries with it
a whiff of Huckleberry Finn.
Negative elements. Sabom reported that "Momentary fright or
bewilderment sometimes accompanied the initial passage into dark-
NDEs in children
191
ness.
. . . In time, however, these unpleasant emotions were replaced
with calm, peace, or tranquillity" (1982, p. 41). Ring noted that
"Although people sometimes report feeling scared or confused near
the beginning of their experience, none felt they either were on their
way to hell or that they had 'fallen into' it" (1980, p. 192).
In general, the childhood
accounts corroborate these remarks,
with some qualifications. One lengthy account describes an experi
ence, not characterized by its writer as "hellish," which was nonethe
less very frightening to her right up to a last-minute rescue by a
presence. The experience of the four-year-old who said he met "the
devil" has not yet been investigated by direct interview with the
youngster to elicit his reaction to or interpretation of the incident.
His account, as reported by his mother, is unusual not only for its
specific mention of "the devil," but also because the pattern of his
experience moves from positive (strongly wanting to stay with the
presence he identifies as God) to negative (encountering, and not
wanting to remain with, a presence identified as negative). This is
in contrast to the Ring and Sabom findings that negatively inclined
experiences resolve positively.
The tunnel. A curious finding is that the only four-cornered tunnels
mentioned in all of IANDS' archives are the two appearing in these
accounts, one described as "square in section" and the other as
"a long, rectangular tunnel."
Light. As indicated earlier, an average of 31 percent of the Ring
and Sabom adult experiencers mentioned light as a prominent
characteristic of the NDE, while 65 percent of the childhood experi
encers described it as a major feature. In an effort to identify specific
differences in the descriptions of child and adult experiencers, I
was able to find only one minor variance: in none of the childhood
accounts is the light termed "magnetic," although in two instances
anticipation is mentioned. Quite possibly because the majority of
these accounts are retrospective, vocabulary differences are minimal;
descriptions of the light's color(s) and affective elements show no more
variance than can be found within a group of all-adult experiences.
In short, in this sample of childhood accounts, the light is described
almost exactly as it is in adult narratives, but is mentioned twice as
frequently.
CONCLUSION
Despite the small number and retrospective nature of the available
accounts, certain conclusions appear justifiable.
19 2
Anabiosis-The Journalfor Near-Death Studies
1. Near-death experiences
possibly even
can and do occur in children, quite
among youngsters in pre-linguistic developmental
stages. Data collection from very young experiencers will present
interesting, though probably not insurmountable, challenges to
researchers.
2. Childhood experiences appear to follow patterns similar to those
encountered with adults. With the exception of the life review and
sense of judgment (at least in the experiences surveyed here), the
features of children's experiences are comparable to those reported
by adults in content, affect, and perceived significance, though wide
variances have been noted in frequency of certain features.
3. Within the childhood population, age is unrelated to the type or
complexity of experience. In an all-child population (as contrasted
with the adults writing retrospectively), attained language develop
ment may affect the likelihood of capturing complete and accurate
descriptions, as may the development of conceptual abilities. In the
accounts presented here, it is not possible to determine how much
of the affective interpretation is an adult overlay, though the
specificity of memory detail in some cases (see "Knowing; the
feeling of wisdom" section) suggests that this is not a major issue.
4. According to the writers of these retrospective accounts, the
aftereffects of childhood experiences may be subjectively perceived
as strongly as those that follow adult experiences. With little "before"
and much "after" in the lives of the experiencers, examination of
this issue will be muddied as developmental changes mask clear
identification of most behavioral aftereffects. However, Jer's experi
ence alone is sufficient testimony to the need for thoughtful study
of NDEs in children, with careful attention given to their aftereffects
and the development of interventions that will support the children
and their families as they work through integration of the experience.
REFERENCES
Gabbard, G.O., and Twemlow, S.W. With the Eyes of the Mind.
New York: Praeger, in press.
Gallup, G., Jr. Adventures in Immortality. New York: McGraw
Hill, 1982.
Moody, R.A., Jr. Life After Life. Covington, Ga.: Mockingbird, 1975.
Morse, M. A near-death experience in a 7-year-old child. American
Journal of Diseases of Children, 1983, 137, 959-961.
Ring, K. Life at Death. New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan,
1980.
NDEs in children
193
Sabom, M.B. Recollections of Death. New York: Harper and Row,
1982.
Requests for reprints to:
Nancy Evans Bush
Box U-20
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06268